Implementing the sustainable development of our Oceans with cultural integrity needs the leadership, principles of respectful co-existence between sectors and willingness to change towards improved and inclusive practices. Our approach is aiming to design a first preliminary version of the Cultural Licence to Operate (CLO) framework that incorporates key elements important to gaining and maintaining cultural legitimacy and equity with Industry and Blue Economy developments. The CLO framework helps to develop the mechanisms for guiding industry, managers and regulators with considering key principles with achieving equity and fairness across growth and expansion in the Blue Economy. By addressing the principles that help to re-scope, re-balance and re-correct for out-dated practices, it helps tackle the imbalances and hierarchies that ocean managers and policy makers often know exist but may find difficult to equalise. The essential collaborative component of the project involves co-ordinating the coming together of people and sectors to respectfully share opportunities, challenges, and learnings to create a space that allows for listening, unravelling of new perspectives and co-creating an architecture that elevates co-benefits.